The excitement surrounding the upcoming Meteor Garden 2018 has turned the attention back to the original Taiwanese drama that started it all. A rerun is currently being broadcasted on Tencent, and its leading lady Barbie Hsu recently posted the ultimate throwback on social media with a picture of herself, former F4 members Jerry Yan, Vic Chou, Ken Chu, Vanness Wu as well as Winnie Qian and Edward Ou who played supporting roles in the drama.
While the audience today still enjoy the classic idol drama, there are those that are more critical towards it, especially towards Shan Cai who is getting flak for being constantly torn between two men.
Barbie Hsu tells all today, “Yes, I admit, during the time when Shan Cai was being indecisive, I told Director Tsai: Shan Cai sucks! I hate her, I don’t know how to portray that. The director had to convince me for a long time and said that Shan Cai is young and doesn’t know much about relationships. An ordinary girl suddenly becoming the object of affection of two handsome men, it’s hard not to feel overwhelmed…… Anyway, halfway through, I didn’t like Shan Cai anymore! But I tried my best not to let the audience hate her too much! The viewers back then were simple and let Shan Cai off easy! Who would have thought that the drama from a lifetime ago is airing again! This time there are holes everywhere! I admit, Shan Cai is a green tea (an internet slang for a girl who’s pure and innocent on the outside but not on the inside)… but I really tried to enrich her character. That’s it.”
Source: 1
Anonymous
yes a long time ago I watch this drama…this drama are very popular in asean..but i'm feel pity for shan cai roles..because she get stuck with love between 2 men…and yes this is not easy for her…but honestly…it is enough me for me to watch meteor garden…and I dont to watch the remake of meteor garden drama anymore…because I dont like to watch the recycle drama…
Anonymous
Omg Barbie Hsu is so me! No matter which remakes, I really can’t stand the lead girl.
“But I tried my best not to let the audience hate her too much” she tried but there’s only so much an actor can do with poorly written character! I still end up hating the lead girl lol. like she said, the character sucks. But people probably won’t care anyway whether or not a character is well-written. As long as there’s handsome guy with cute girl, it’s gonna be super mainstream at the end of the day just like other overrated mainstream.
But for critical watcher like me, I couldnt simply enjoy just with visual factor alone. Its hard to find romance drama with well-written character and storyline. This is the reason why most of people have prejudice against romance genre, most of them seriously sucks. Suck either in storyline part, character part or acting part. Few of well-written romance storyline that I can think up in my head at the moment is I Hear Your Voice, It’s Okay, Thats Love and Reply series. They’re kdrama though.
For Chinese, I think Love O2O is pretty good, characters both are charming, storyline is decent, though still far inferior from the dramas I mentioned above. Too bad the acting is disappointing, I think I could love it bit more if they use the right actors. Visually they match, got some chemistry there, but acting skill still lacks a lot.
The romance in When Snail Falls In Love and Ode To Joy (An Di and VP Bao, Xiaoxiao and the doc) also pretty swoon-worthy although romance isn’t the dramas’ main focus. It seems to me, most of my favourite romance storyline is when it is written as a side storyline instead of main storyline, When romance is the main genre, most of writers have a hard time to maintain the storyline good till the end because there seems to be not enough solid content. They end up becoming shallow and too cringeworthy most of the time.
Romance genre is one of my favourite especially those who bloom through friendship. Problem is, it’s hard to find a good and well-written one. Love, Rosie is still my all-time friends-turn-to-lover fave movie. Characters are very charming, storyline is good, relatable. I so wish it can be made into a drama remake!
I’m still gonna check MG 2018 out just for the sake it being a remake to popular classic. But highly doubt it’s going to be my fave. I can already sense the annoyance I’m gonna feel once I watch the drama. In fact, Shen Yue’s character in ALSB also is pretty annoying but still tolerable to a certain extent but with this classic, thinking how helpless the lead girl gonna be, how often she’s gonna be bullied and dragged by the male lead, how clumsy she is, how indecisive she is… I’m— uh never mind. Would always welcome to be surprised by different portrayal and performance of the main actors in this remake in case they able to make the characters little better and bit more charming, if there could be ever.
Anonymous
I think the problem with the romance genre is that they usually do the 2 or 3 guys or girls that love the same person. The audiences love drama that it created and it always the female that get a lot of hate. Even when it’s a friendship angle between a girl and a guy, people still complain why they can’t get together. If there’s anyone to blame, it’s the audiences. I have seen people drop a series because there’s not enough romance.
Romance genre is not my fav, but I agree with you about the romance is so swoon-worthy when it’s not a romance genre series. I do love those the most.
Unknown
Dear Anonymous 2 & 3, not sure if you guys will get my comment, but I really like what you wrote. Precisely why I have not seen Meteor Garden or A Love So Beautiful. It is indeed difficult to find a romance drama with a solid plot & decent first & second leads who do not do things that make you want to vomit blood or pull your hair out. I am currently watching Pretty Noona Who Buys Me Food. Will see how that goes.
Anonymous
i like how she leave the "bitch" out of the "green tea bitch" expression lmao BOF is the def of cliche drama but the audiences love it. i love the OST and even with the manga,im already annoyed at some parts whether its the main girl or main guy. the latest trailer for 2018 BOF looks okay, their visual stand out but i hope their acting will match it. times have changed now, the poor girl act isnt as popular among female audiences anymore and i hope they ll portray it in a different light than before
Anonymous
I agree completely with Barbie Hsu. I first started watching Meteor Garden 2018 because of the visuals of F3 (Ximen Meizuo and Lei) (oops hehe). (It was in my suggested on Netflix). Anyway, Dong Shan Cai is seriously unlikable. In both the 2001 original version and the remake now. I guess it was just my wishful thinking that maybe the director would realise how unlikeable she is and make some tweaks to her character.
It is so difficult to watch this drama when you seriously dislike the female lead! And (I'm not exactly a big fan of Daoming Si either). For me, what's really good about this show is F3, Daoming Si's amazing friends. They've stuck by him throuhgout the show so far even when he is seriously rude and a bully. Not to mention Lei, who stayed away from Shancai for the sake of Daoming Si despite nearly developing feelings for her himself. (Also let's not forget their STUNNING visuals, they're so tall wow :))
Now, back to Shancai. I. seriously. can't. like. her. at. all. I told myself I would give her a chance when I first started the drama and nope. I just can't. I know that according to the plot she is very inexperienced with love and "confused" when two super good looking guys show interest in her. But wtf she irritates me so much!! She may be "cheerful" but she is ridiculously clumsy, stupid at times and ignorant. How is it that someone can break Daoming Si's heart so many times yet be completely and blissfully unaware of her actions? I just don't understand. Plus, her stuttering and staring and when she looks up to Daoming Si with those annoying big "innocent" eyes actually piss me off sometimes!! Gosh, and this is coming from someone who doesn't even like Daoming Si!!
Daoming Si falls for her because she is "fierce" and "headstrong" and "stands up for herself". It is these features that triggers Daoming Si to unexpected fall in love with her. But aside from the beginning where she stood up to his bullying and for her friend, I can't see any more examples of this amazing character! She is not fierce, she is a wannabe and TRIES to be fierce by acting like she doesn't care and trying to force the fierceness out. "What do you want, Daoming Si?" Cringe. She is trying to be rogue with him when she actually doesn't have the guts at all. Sure, she is hardworking and I respect that but everything about her character is seriously unlikeable!! It has nothing to do with Barbie Hsu or Shen Yue's acting, it is about Shancai's own character. Even Barbie Hsu didn't like Shancai!!
Anyways, I am currently on ep 13 and I hope they will place some sort of focus on F3 and THEIR own character development, personally I felt Ximen and Meizuo were quite important support for Daoming Si and his development and there should be at least some focus placed on Ximen and Meizuo where they can develop too and develop important relationships.
Again, this is just my opinion and feel free to disagree! 🙂
Rakshitha K
OMG!! I FELT THE SAME.
I tried so hard to like ShanCai's character, but I just couldn't. Not even in the Manga.
She was only fierce when she stood up for her friend. Other than that she was so gutless that she couldn't even accept her own feelings and hurt DMS over and over with no regard for his feelings at all.
She was so insensitive, sometimes it felt that her character was so selfish.
And the acting was equally bad in MG2018, no offense to Shen Yue. I actually liked her in ALSB. But her portrayal of ShanCai was really not good.
I think the poor writing is what made her character not likeable.
Barbara Oh
OMG it’s been so long, this was a lifetime ago, 20 years!!! I admit I wasn’t a fan during it’s original airing, intentionally veering away from predictable dramas like this. Who doesn’t want to be the sweetheart of 2 very attractive men? But now in my 30’s I love rewatching it in its entirety. Pls check out everycreaturecounts.org